Wednesday, April 25, 2012

V is for Vesicle

A vesicle is something that is used to carry molecules through the body. Since the body consists of mostly water, these vesicles need to be hydrophilic on the outside, but most molecules in need of transport are hydrophobic, so the inside of the vesicle must be hydrophobic. This means that they can be made from phospholipids. Phospholipids have a hydrophobic tail and a hydrophilic body (and they look like sperm).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicle_(biology_and_chemistry)

This is a picture of a liposome. It has a phospholipid bilayer to accommodate hydrophilic molecules.

Since there are so many molecules that need to be transported in the body there are many, many vesicles. The ones that I am most familiar with are those that carry neurotransmitters because that is what I am currently learning about in my psychopharmacology class. In our neurons we have vesicles that take our neurotransmitters to the presynaptic part of the nerve. Once the vesicles reach the destination they push the molecules through their membrane and out into the cytoplasm or cell body (wherever they are, really).

Side note: I have six finals and five quizzes, one lab report, one essay, and one project all this week. The problem is that I can think of about a hundred things more thrilling than studying. How do you study? Any tips or suggestions that make for good studying habits?

7 comments:

When I took Management Classes it had been a long time since I was in school. I took lots of notes and it helped when the instructor told us the first class that if she put it on the easel it would be on the test. I studied from my notes and re-read notes the morning of a test.

Nice post! I love this stuff--would have loved to major in Biology, or even go to med school. *Sigh*. In my next life :)

Studying... Jen, I was never any good at it. Mostly I winged it, and got lucky. On the other hand, with the stuff that really did interest me I could spend hours poring over books and notes and doing extra research in the library. Maybe you can find something exciting in these things you need to study or prepare for and focus on that?

Huh lol! I love studying - I find doing it outside is always refreshing, and definitely keep stocked up with highlighters and post its, an absolute must have if you want decent notes. Chocolate helps with study too, I think! :)

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I am a 21 year old college student who finds every way imaginable to procrastinate. My blog is mainly just me talking about my life, what I should be doing, what I'm actually doing, and how challenging I think life is at the moment. I dream of being a genetic counselor and am working very hard to achieve my goal!